It's About Bunnies
by SombraAlma
Summary: A collection of unrelated, 108-word LOST drabbles. Update: In Our Bedroom After the War. Rose/Bernard: "Retirement suits them."
1. Ballpoint Stain

**Note:** This begins a series of unrelated, 108-word LOST drabbles. I will update with new "chapters" as I write more drabbles.

**Title:** Ballpoint Stain**  
Rating:** PG**  
Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** Post-O6, Jack is pinch-hitting in the ER. _He knows, just by sight, that the leg has to go._**  
Spoilers:** Do No Harm, and bits of Jack's general Oceanic 6 storyline.**  
**

-----

They're short-staffed when a multiple MVA comes in, so he's pinch-hitting in the ER.

Should have known this'd be a bad idea.

He's cutting open the jeans of the first guy on his table. He knows, just by sight, that the leg has to go. It's not a surprise – it's hanging by a thread – but it's sickening nonetheless. He jerks, ripping the jeans. Something clatters to the floor. He shouldn't, but he looks.

Two pens. One red, one blue. (Who the hell carries pens in their jeans pockets, anyway?)

"Shephard! Pull yourself together!"

He can't.

He downs a fifth of Jameson on the way home.


	2. If We Make It Through December

**Title:** If We Make It Through December (we'll be fine)**  
Rating:** PG**  
Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** A couple months after SNBH. Jack and Kate. _It's instinct and forgotten habit, more than anything, that make her press her lips to his._**  
Spoilers:** Something Nice Back Home**  
Notes:** The title comes from the Merle Haggard song of the same name.

-----

It's 11pm, Christmas Eve, when he knocks on her door.

"Santa. _Really._" He looks ridiculous, is what she thinks.

She watches him stumble over his words and tug at the oversized red suit before he gets it out: "Can I see him?"

"He's sleeping. It's Christmas Eve_._ And no."

He steps forward and leans in and it's instinct and forgotten habit, more than anything, that make her press her lips to his. She opens her mouth because that's what they do. He tastes like bourbon and sweat, and the fake white beard gets caught in her teeth.

"Merry Christmas, Kate."

She closes the door.


	3. One day she's gonna learn how to fly

**Title:** One day she's gonna learn how to fly**  
Rating:** PG**  
Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** Sam Austen: _It's the first time any of his men have seen him cry._**  
Spoilers:** season 4, specifically Confirmed Dead and There's No Place Like Home**  
Notes:** This is what I wanted to happen. I feel cheated that it didn't. The title is from "Little Miss Magic" by Jimmy Buffett.

-----

Sam's on base when the television splashes the news: _Wreckage of Oceanic Flight 815 found in Sunda Trench_. He escapes to his office and shuts the door. He can still hear her "Daddy," the last time he'd seen her. This wasn't ever how he'd thought it would end.

Two months later, and he's somewhere in the middle of the Iraqi desert. One of the kids he's commanding has a package from home. "Sir. Thought you might like to see this," he says, holding out a hometown newspaper. "Wasn't your daughter..."

The headline is one word: _Rescued_.

It's the first time any of his men have seen him cry.


	4. Remember the Mocking Bird

**Title:** Remember the Mocking Bird**  
Rating:** G**  
Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** Sawyer, Cassidy: Some memories can't be reset.**  
Spoilers:** up to The Incident; specific for Whatever Happened, Happened**  
Notes:** The title is from Jimi Hendrix's "Remember."

-----

There's so much he only remembers in vague flashes.

This, though, he knows: He has a daughter. So he shows up at their door (fancy house, his stolen money) and Cassidy meets him there, furious. He stands silent in her kitchen and lets her yell, because he deserves it.

When she's finally exhausted her anger, she looks at him, sudden confusion. "Kate said they were going back, but I..."

He only stares at her, blankly. He has no idea what that means. Doesn't seem like she knows, herself.

On the refrigerator there's a picture. And somewhere deep, a flash of memory: _Looks just like you, when she smiles._


	5. Takes One To Know One

**Title: **Takes One to Know One**  
Rating:** PG-13**  
Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** Juliet/Ben. _She can lie, too._**  
Spoilers:** non-specific for The Other Woman and One of Us

-----

He won't let her leave, that much becomes clear, all too soon. He makes promises and looks at her with hungry eyes that she'd give in to, if she thought it would help.

She only says it to his face once: "I hate you."

He slaps her and leaves a red handprint on her cheek, which he smooths, later, with cool slender fingers in the aftermath of anger and lust. (She's never been as strong as she seems.) He kisses the fading sting away, and, "I'm sorry."

She's never believed anything less. But she can lie, too. She's tangled in this bed with him, after all.

"I know."


	6. Exercises in Futility

**Title:** Exercises in Futility  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.  
**Summary:** Kate, Sawyer. "She said it worked."  
**Spoilers:** through "What Kate Does"

-----

She finds him again, on a swing in the barracks yard, still and silent. She doesn't know if he's registered her presence. She doesn't really know anything, anymore. And she's never been good at sitting still, but she tries it, now. Takes the swing next to his. Sits. Waits. For anything.

Finally: "She said it worked."

Pause. Then, "What?"

"The bomb. She said it worked." It's delivered in a monotone, but he does give a small kick, sets his swing to sway gently. She takes a breath, speaks carefully.

"We're still here."

He looks at her then, for the first time in what feels like years. "I know."


	7. It's My Party

**Title: **It's My Party**  
Rating: **PG**  
Disclaimer: **Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary: **_It's her thirtieth birthday, or the day she's being born, depending on how you look at it._**  
Spoilers: **What Kate Did (2.09), 1970s Dharma episodes

-----

It's her thirtieth birthday, or the day she's being born, depending on how you look at it. Kate skips out of her shift at the motor pool and takes a van and a case of Dharma beer out to the North Valley.

(Somewhere in Korea, her dad is on base. He'll get a telegram in a few hours, and his men will congratulate him for something he had no part in.)

(Somewhere in Iowa, Wayne is drunk and angry because Diane gave her baby another man's name.)

Her fingers twitch, opening an imaginary lighter. She can almost smell the gas igniting. She's got regrets. This is not one.


	8. Lest Ye Be Judged

**Title: **Lest Ye Be Judged**  
Rating: **PG**  
Disclaimer: **Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** Kate/Sawyer, reset!verse._Hell, I've done things too, Bonnie._**  
Spoilers: **through LA X

-----

He doesn't even look surprised to see her, two weeks later in an empty bar on her way east. He grins around his beer and slides onto the barstool beside her.

"So. What'd you do?"

She cuts her eyes to him. "What's it to you?"

"Hell, I've done things too, Bonnie."

The thing is, she believes him, though she doesn't know why she should. Besides, he could find out easily enough if he watched the news, though he doesn't look to her like the CNN type.

"I killed my father."

It's the second time she's said so aloud. This time, it goes down easier.


	9. Top Forty

**Title: **Top Forty**  
Rating: **G**  
Disclaimer: **Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** Bea Klugh writes the list.**  
Spoilers: **Three Minutes (2.22)

-----

Bea would prefer to do this in person, to listen and touch, watch and deduct and decide. But Tom has said, time and again, _that's not how Jacob wants it_. And who is she to question?

So it's hours pouring over the files sent over from the other island, instead. Scribbled notes in margins from Ben and Ethan, bits of information they've gleaned from the boy. Patterns emerge, as they always do. Mistrust and hate, greed and lust. It's easy, now, to see who can be played against the other.

She takes the tattered piece of paper and writes, carefully, four names.

She smiles. He will be pleased.


	10. Take These Broken Wings

**Title: **Take These Broken Wings**  
Rating: **PG**  
Disclaimer: **Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** _There's always been something a little different about the boy..._**  
Spoilers: **through Whatever Happened, Happened

-----

There's always been something a little different about the boy, but she's never been able to pinpoint exactly what. He's just quiet, too quiet. There's something about his eyes. But he's her flesh and blood, and that means something, enough that she ignores what's different. He's been through enough. And then --

"Look! Watch this!" His voice from the other room, and she goes to him because he sounds so animated, like she rarely hears him.

She follows his pointing finger in time to watch a sparrow pause mid-flight – spiral into the window – fall to the dirt below. Still.

He smiles. Carole screams.

"_Aaron_!"


	11. Just like you when she smiles

**Title:** Just like you when she smiles**  
Rating:** PG**  
Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** _Dear Mr. Ford, you don't know who I am but I know who you are..._**  
Spoilers:** through The Last Recruit, just to be safe

* * *

When she's eight, she writes him a letter.

_Dear Mr. Ford, you don't know who I am but I know who you are..._

She never stops looking. She'll send it, someday.

When she's twenty-two, they're interviewing some detective on TV, something about a decades long manhunt for a woman who blew up her father's house. Clem's not really watching, but something catches her eye when the cop flashes a grin, dimples.

It's the same face she sees every morning in the mirror.

She pulls the letter from its place in her wallet, worn, tattered edges. She thinks, _now_. Finally.

_I know you're the reason my momma always cries._


	12. Stalag Luft III

**Title: **Stalag Luft III**  
Rating: **PG**  
Disclaimer: **Don't own them; just borrowing. _The Great Escape_ is Paul Brickhill's. Stalag Luft III is the POW camp that's the setting for the book, and Hilts is the main character of the movie of the same name.**  
Summary: **AU!verse, Kate and James. _"You believe I'm innocent," she tells him each day..."You could let me go."_**  
Spoilers: **Season 6. Takes place sometime between The Last Recruit and What They Died For.

* * *

The cop they call Jim starts taking his lunch breaks at her cell. He pulls over a chair, props his feet up on the bars, and watches her in between bites of his sandwich and swigs of Coke.

"You believe I'm innocent," she tells him each day, when the half hour is up. "You could let me go." She stops expecting a response.

One day, he pulls a book out of his back pocket before he sits down. "Think you'll like this one, Hilts." He holds it up so she sees the title; _The Great Escape_. "Maybe pick up some pointers."

He grins, slow, and begins to read.


	13. Another aeroplane, another sunny place

**Title:** Another aeroplane, another sunny place**  
Rating:** G**  
Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** _She sends him postcards from everywhere._**  
Spoilers:** through the series finale

* * *

The night Aaron says _Good night, Mama,_ and says it to Claire, Kate leaves.

She sends him postcards from everywhere. Chicago, New York, Miami. And then, from across the ocean. London, Berlin, Madrid. Places she could never have even imagined: Riyadh, Kampala. She never writes anything, save his name and address – her hands shake too much, and she's forgetting the smell of his hair.

Once, she sends a postcard from Los Angeles. Finally, she writes: _Love you, Goober._ She drops it in the mailbox and knows exactly the bus that will take her to him.

The next one, she sends from Oahu.

She's never known how to stay.


	14. Ooh Child

**Title: **Ooh Child**  
Rating: **PG-13**  
Disclaimer: **Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** _They take his son and Michael snaps._**  
Spoilers: **through Two For the Road**  
****Warning**: canon character death.

They take his son and Michael snaps. He can actually feel himself going crazy, his brain separating from his heart. Half alive.

The rest of them, they're not parents. They don't get it. He would die for Walt.

He would _kill_ for him.

Still, it's only something he says, quietly, to himself, in the dark when no one else is around. _I would kill to get him back._ He means it, but it's abstract.

...Until the cool weight of the gun is in his hand, until he can feel the tension in his wrist as he holds it steady. As he watches, Ana crumples against the couch.

_Walt._


	15. Find the map and draw a straight line

**Title:** Find the map and draw a straight line  
**Rating:** G  
**Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.  
**Summary: **_He watches how they fall – Europe, Asia, Africa; a jumble of confused wanderlust._  
**Spoilers:** through the finale  
**Notes:** This drabble is a remix/sequel of sorts of Another aeroplane, another sunny place (part 13 of this drabble collection). Read that first, to understand this one.

* * *

He's fifteen when he finds it, a shoebox full of postcards. He bumps it, accidentally, off a high closet shelf and watches how they fall – Europe, Asia, Africa; a jumble of confused wanderlust.

Most of the cards only hold his name and address. Occasionally there's a scribbled message: _Wish you were here._ Or,_ Love you, Goober._ He recognizes the handwriting: there's a photograph on the refrigerator, yellowed and edges curling, the same scribbled hand on the back. _Aaron and Mommy, 2007._

He pulls out an atlas, uses a Sharpie to mark the places she's been.

He traces the map and tries to remember her voice. There's only silence.


	16. Bone Of My Bones

**Title:** Bone Of My Bones  
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.  
**Summary:** _This could be her forever._  
**Spoilers:** The House of the Rising Sun, Something Nice Back Home

* * *

After Jack proposes, he makes love to her, slow, heavy, like he's trying to anchor her. When he falls asleep afterwards, she pulls the sheet up to cover even their heads, cocooning them in a cave of cotton. It's quiet, too warm, and she watches the dark outline of him. This is it, she thinks, ring cold around her finger. This could be her forever.

And it comes unbidden, as these things usually do, a memory of another cave made of stone. Bodies decaying for centuries. Kate gasps, and tosses the sheet away from their heads so she can breathe cool air.

She'd never wanted to be Eve.


	17. Papa Don't Preach

**Title:** Papa Don't Preach**  
Rating:** G**  
Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** Sam Austen meets Aaron. _He must look more like his father._**  
Spoilers:** through Eggtown

**

* * *

**

Sam bounces the baby on his lap, fingers running through wispy blond hair, and Kate smiles, tight and nervous. "He's beautiful, isn't he?"

He's always known her too well. Her father traces the little boy's features, his nose, his cheekbones, his forehead. Eyes averted. "He must look more like his father." She thinks: he knows how this feels.

"Daddy, please." She holds her breath, and Sam finally meets her gaze. She can see the decision cross his face.

"He's beautiful, Katie."

She lets out the breath she'd held, relief and gratitude. "That's your grandpa, Aaron."

Chubby fingers padding Sam's chin, the baby laughs, and the sound warms her.


	18. In perfect stillness, only sorrow

**Title:** In perfect stillness, only sorrow**  
Rating:** PG-13**  
Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** Kate/Sawyer, post-finale. _There's one place on her body he is not allowed to touch._**  
Spoilers:** through The End**  
Notes:** The title is from Barbara Kingsolver's novel _The Poisonwood Bible: _"Listen. To live is to be marked. To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know. In perfect stillness, frankly, I've only found sorrow." (p. 458)

* * *

There's one place on her body he is not allowed to touch. He travels over her skin; she groans and moves beneath him. It's only when he reaches her left shoulder, the red, puckered flesh of a healed wound, she twists away.

"Sawyer," she hisses between her teeth, angry, and it's the only time she doesn't call him James, anymore.

So he kisses her other shoulder instead, soothing his tongue across perfect flesh, and he feels her forgiveness in the way her legs tighten around him again.

When she sleeps, he returns to it, tracing rough edges with a finger. It's his bullet-shaped proof:

_It was real._


	19. Nineteen EightyNine

**Title:** Nineteen Eighty-Nine**  
Rating:** PG**  
Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** Kate and Tom. _We're gonna keep driving._**  
Spoilers: **Born to Run

* * *

She's twelve when he first says he's going to marry her. He gets it on tape, even, and after they bury the capsule, he takes her chin and kisses her, sweet and clumsy and innocent.

She's sixteen when she gets her license. She picks him up in Wayne's old truck, drives too fast down the two-track. He says it then, too: "We're gonna get married, Katie."

"We're gonna keep driving," she counters, pressing harder on the gas.

He reaches across her and grabs the wheel, makes her pull over. When he kisses her this time, rough, he knows what he's doing.

She doesn't taste anyone's innocence anymore.


	20. In Between Dreams

**Title:** In Between Dreams**  
Rating:** G**  
Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** Juliet dreams.**  
Spoilers: **One of Us

* * *

She dreams of Julian, as she'd seen him on Mikhail's video feed: blond, laughing. He stands on a kitchen chair and helps her mix the dough. He's a mess, flour and sugar covering him and the floor. Juliet laughs as he calls her Auntie and smacks his lips against hers.

But she wakes to the smoke alarm blaring, the smell of charred cookies_. _She's crying as she rushes to the kitchen, tosses the ruined pan to the floor; she flings the front door open to air out the smoke.

She can still taste him, and his sticky sweetness against the cloying humidity of the island makes her gag.


	21. Close as you can get to hell

**Title:** Close as you can get to hell**  
Rating:** PG-13**  
Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** Sawyer, after killing Duckett. _It'll come back around._**  
Spoilers:** Outlaws

* * *

He runs. He tosses the gun in the dumpster, gagging on the stink of rotting shrimp, and he runs. It's dark, it's raining, no one pays him mind; just another sorry bastard caught out in the storm.

Back at the motel he stands, dripping all over the cracked bathroom tile, and it's only when he looks down at his hands he notices the blood.

(Of course, there's no blood; his hands only drip rainwater into the sink. But his vision blurs and he sees red; he turns the water on as hot as he can stand and watches as it swirls down the drain.

It'll come back around.)


	22. Mine Are Sinning Hands

**Title: **Mine Are Sinning Hands**  
Rating:** PG**  
Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** Ed Mars on Kate. _Is he, in some twisted way, her confessor?_**  
Spoilers: **I Do**  
Notes:** Title is from Iron & Wine.

* * *

It's halfway through the first year – the first year he starts tracking her – before he realizes she calls him on every holy day of obligation.

He wonders, then: is he, in some twisted way, her confessor?

The thought makes him laugh, low, and grip the phone tighter. He imagines her at Mass, slipping in the back, her hair dyed some unrecognizable color, kneeling and rising with the congregants. A murderer among the devout.

She hangs up, always, before the trace can be completed. He flips through his calendar and marks the next holy day. One day, she'll make a mistake. His confessional will be ready when she does.


	23. When the road looks rough ahead

**Title:** When the road looks rough ahead**  
Rating:** G**  
Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** Vincent comes to an understanding.**  
Spoilers:** Exodus**  
Notes:** The title is from "You've Got a Friend in Me" from the Toy Story OST, which I consider to be Vincent's song.

* * *

At first, he doesn't understand. He swims after The Boy, because this is what he does. The Boy needs him. But then The Boy shouts at him and The Girl pulls him back out of the water. He shakes himself and stands watch until he can't see The Boy anymore. He whines.

He begins to understand when he smells it on The Girl. _Sad._ He'd smelled _sad _on The Boy, too, so he follows her, presses his side against her legs. Sighs when her hand falls to rest on his head.

He understands: The Girl needs him now. When she sits, he rests his chin on her knee.


	24. A Pocketful of Mumbles

**Title:** A Pocketful of Mumbles**  
Rating:** PG**  
Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** Kate/Kevin Callis: _She remembers her prayers: lead us not into temptation._**  
Spoilers:** I Do**  
Notes:** The title is from Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer."

* * *

She takes a job at a diner in Miami, and he and his buddies are regulars. So she knows he's a cop from the very beginning, and that alone should make her keep her distance. But he's charming, he's handsome, so inherently _good_.

(She remembers her prayers: lead us not into temptation.)

He's quietly persistent. Tips her extravagantly. His cop buddies tease him and he smiles at her, abashed. He even tells her about his mother - "she'd love you" - and she _wants_. She can be _good_.

(Lead us not.)

Her name – Monica – sounds like music on his mouth. Innocent.

(Lead us.)

The lies roll easy off her tongue.


	25. The Gingerbread Man

**Title:** The Gingerbread Man**  
Rating:** PG**  
Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** Kate, Aaron. _Run, run, as fast as you can..._**  
Spoilers:** Eggtown et al.

* * *

Aaron goes through a phase in which _The Gingerbread Man_ is his favorite story. Kate has to read it every bedtime, over and over, until she can recite it without ever opening the book. He plays in the backyard and chants the refrain – _run, run, as fast as you can_ – as he sprints from her, squealing laughter in his voice. She chases him and lets him win, always just out of her grasp. (She doesn't laugh.)

She dreams it, sometimes, his chanting voice – _you can't catch me_ – and some nights, his voice is hers. She wakes in a cold sweat.

Nowhere to run, now (_fast as you can_).


	26. You're Just Damage Control

**Title:** You're Just Damage Control**  
Rating:** PG-13**  
Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** Kate/Sayid, Aaron. _In the dark, they shed the smooth facades of their new lives._**  
Spoilers:** Eggtown, et al. General Oceanic Six stuff.

* * *

Sayid only stops by her house late, after Aaron's asleep.

In the dark, they shed the smooth facades of their new lives. Moonlight through the window shines her skin white against his dark; they grab, cling, fingernails digging. It's pain they need, nothing to do with want. Fast. Desperate. Trapped.

Down the hall, the baby cries. Kate pulls away, abrupt, disappears.

After, she's quiet. She pulls Sayid gentle down onto the sheets and strokes his face; he imagines her fingers on Aaron's cheek. "Okay," she whispers, body tight against his. "It's okay."

He draws the sheets up to cover them and wonders why the baby had been convinced.


	27. Tides Will Come and Go

**Title:** Tides Will Come and Go**  
Rating:** PG**  
Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.**  
Summary:** Miles/Richard. _There's something to be said for belonging._**  
Spoilers:** through The End

* * *

When they land in LA and it's soon clear Richard can't live in the busy, modern city, Miles finds them a place by the ocean, instead. The town is small, the other residents mostly keep to themselves. It's only accessible by boat (Miles gets the irony right away).

Their few boxes are still taped up and stacked in the living room, and he finds Richard down by the water. They stand, pressed shoulder to shoulder as the waves crash and reflect the moon.

Richard turns to him; Miles tastes the salt of the ocean's spray on his skin. He smiles, finally. There's something to be said for belonging.


	28. In Our Bedroom After the War

**Title:** In Our Bedroom After the War  
**Rating:** G  
**Disclaimer:** Don't own them; just borrowing.  
**Summary:** Rose and Bernard: _Retirement suits them._  
**Spoilers:** The Incident

* * *

Retirement suits them. It's liberating, being away from it all, flying under the radar of the Dharma Initiative and their fellow survivors. They make the rule early on: don't get involved.

They finish the cottage in '75. Their first night sleeping inside, Bernard makes to pick her up as they reach the door. Rose swats at his shoulder ("you're not as young as you think you are," but she's laughing, charmed), and instead they step over the threshold together, arm in arm.

Each morning, Rose wakes early. As she watches the sun rise over the horizon, she prays. It's as much involvement as she allows herself.

It's enough.


End file.
